vulgarize

English

Alternative forms

vulgarise (non-Oxford British spelling)

Etymology

vulgar +‎ -ize

Verb

vulgarize (third-person singular simple present vulgarizes, present participle vulgarizing, simple past and past participle vulgarized)

To make commonplace, lewd, or vulgar.
- 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, OCLC 1029993343:
  With much labor we got our things up the steps, and then, looking back, took one last long survey of that strange land, soon I fear to be vulgarized, the prey of hunter and prospector, but to each of us a dreamland of glamour and romance, a land where we had dared much, suffered much, and learned much - our land, as we shall ever fondly call it.
- 1915: Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out
  "Yes," said Mr. Flushing. "And in my opinion," he continued, "the absence of population to which Hirst objects is precisely the significant touch. You must admit, Hirst, that a little Italian town even would vulgarise the whole scene, would detract from the vastness — the sense of elemental grandeur."

Synonyms

debase
dumb down

Antonyms

ennoble

Translations

To make something vulgar

Finnish: vulgaaristaa
Georgian: გავულგარულება (gavulgaruleba), გაუხამსება (gauxamseba)
Greek: εκχυδαΐζω (el) (ekchydaḯzo)

Portuguese

Verb

vulgarize

inflection of vulgarizar:
1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
2. third-person singular imperative